PTSD is change, change again

PTSD is change, change again
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 17, 2014

Yesterday I was in a meeting about a project a group of people are working on. There were two Iraq veterans in the group. One male and one female, both trying to heal PTSD. As we were talking I thought about the project I had seen online showing the change in the faces of veterans from the time they entered into the military to the time they returned from combat. Faces of PTSD shows pictures of men visually changed by combat.

As you grew up, you changed. Your body changed with age and that change was obvious even though the changes happened during many years. From the time you were born until you became an adult, everything changed. A boy became a young man. The young man became a soldier. The soldier became a veteran.

Faces of PTSD

The truth is, you are a blend of all three. The person you were before, the soldier you were during and the veteran you became afterwards, are all part of who you are today.

As I looked the pictures I wounded what it would look like to blend the three pictures together, since all stages of the veteran became the end result.

I used Photoshop to copy the last image, blend it with the "during" then used that image to blend with the "before" image. Every part of your life, every major change, goes with you. You are never "stuck" as you are.

PTSD is a change because of traumatic events. You can change again. You will take all of the parts of you and merge them into a picture of healing. What will your picture look like when you live a better quality of life than you are living with today?